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Celebrating the 9/12 rallies-TURNOUT EST RANGE FROM 350K (liberal) TO 2 MILLION (conservative)
ABC News ^ | September 12, 2009 | Michelle Malkin

Posted on 09/12/2009 2:21:15 PM PDT by Zakeet

Edited on 09/12/2009 4:03:43 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

6:15 PM EDT Mod Update (per NRO's reporting): estimates of crowd size range from 350,000 to 2 million. Prolly somewhere in between.

Huge crowd, yes. But not two million. Even DeMint has now changed his first boast on this. Malkin is wrong because the police do not give estimates.

We were there and have seen a lot of crowds on the mall for inaugurations, July 4th festivities, marches, etc. Two million would not fit on the Mall in its two mile stretch.

Best estimate from experience? - 200,000 plus. For those familiar with the Capital and the Mall, the crowd filled the Capital west lawn, the area around the Grant reflecting pool, and west to Fourth street. It started encroaching on another group’s permit west of the Grant statue. It could be another 100,000 to 200,000 because they were forced to spread out along the sides of the rally because of the permit limits and the loudspeakers’ range.

It was a very large crowd, far beyond expectations, but too many groups inflate the numbers (mostly libs). It was NOT “tens of thousands” as the CNN NBC crowd are trying to say, but more like hundreds of thousands. BTW, the DC or Park Police do NOT make estimates, so anyone saying so is wrong.

Not bad for a rally organized by amateurs with no coordinating megalith like unions or the NAACP. Just real people. Almost ALL of the thousands of signs were handmade, not the fancy pre-printed ones handed out by liberal groups like MoveOn and SEIU.

I posted this on earlier threads. Now reports coming out are backing up my estimate. 200,000 (up to 400,000 because many were off to the side in the nether reaches of the Capitol lawn) is a HUGE number - four full Yankee Stadiums. Let’s not get carried away with the 2 million claim and give the left an opportunity to refute everything else.

And it was true grass roots. Almost ALL the signs were handmade, not the product of SEIU and DNC printing presses that characterize liberal rallies.

99 posted on 09/12/2009 3:06:55 PM PDT by oldbill


TOPICS: Breaking News; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 111th; 912project; aar; bho44; teaparty
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To: kevao
We were so far back we couldn't see or hear anything. We were very close to the mall area and there were A LOT of people behind us spilling into the mall area. I would say the crowd in the mall area took up about 1/3 of the entire mall, but again, it's hard to say because people began just moving around all over the place because you couldn't see or hear anything back there. It could have gone further back at some points during the day. I also read on here that protesters were told to move from the mall area because some other organization had permits for the area. There was a “Black Family Reunion” taking place on the mall at the same time. They didn't have a lot of people but they did take up a lot of space with tents and vendors. I know a lot of people from the protest went there to buy some food and use the port-o-potties because the ones for our event always were about 30 people deep. Anyway, my point is, there was not enough space for everyone and because you couldn't hear, let alone see, the speakers, a lot of people simply took off after the march. I think the aerial shots of the marchers is where the real number probably is.

We're you there early and do you know why the march started way earlier than the 11:30 time it was suppose to start? We got there around 10:20 and the march had already started. IT WAS PACKED! We squeezed in the middle of it and it was nothing but a sea of people in front and behind us.

281 posted on 09/12/2009 6:52:24 PM PDT by jennyjenny
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To: Let's Roll

I thought that was EPIC!!! LOL! Great idea!


282 posted on 09/12/2009 6:53:31 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (http://www.muckety.com/7BECFF40501E647D3741343C37265A57.map)
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To: divine_moment_of_facts

Careful, some of those aerial photos are from the million man march. The event today had a huge white tent in middle of mall. If no tent in photo, then its a fake.


283 posted on 09/12/2009 6:53:54 PM PDT by icwhatudo ("laws requiring compulsory abortion could be sustained under the existing Constitution"Obama Adviser)
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To: worst-case scenario

“No idea why the Park Service didn’t put up more johns, but it does seem like they didn’t anticipate the turnout accurately.”

more lokely they were ordered no t. This was a -R gathering. No need to make it easy for us.


284 posted on 09/12/2009 6:55:16 PM PDT by charmedone
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To: kevao

A Capitol Building cop at the end told me there is no way to know for sure but he estimated 2 to 300,000. He said they only expected 50,000.

There were spirited discussions afterward on the streets and on our bus regarding why it may heve been over 1 million. Mainly the extent of the crowd when it was stretching from the Capitol up Pennsylvania Ave and up the Mall.

It was a large crowd any talk of 70,000 is nonsense.

Beautiful group, zero altercations, zero litter. Real middle Americans of the highest quality.


285 posted on 09/12/2009 6:58:20 PM PDT by Williams (It's The Policies, Stupid.)
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To: SoKatt

My guess is 800,000, maybe a little higher than that. i dont think they made the 1 million, but ANYTHING over 500,000, and considering that moast of these people have day jobs and are not professional rabble rousers and professional demonstrators, (like libs and anarchists), it is astounding!


286 posted on 09/12/2009 6:58:58 PM PDT by AmericanInTokyo (The tiger has been poked in the eye. He is going to be p*ssed. Better ramp our offensive two-fold.)
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To: Red in Blue PA

I’m not sure it matters if it was only 60,000 because traditionally conservatives don’t protest and engage in these sorts of public actions. Liberals, on the other hand are always looking for any reason to protest and get a free bus ride. Students and the career unemployed generally have lots of time on their hands.

For these average folks to do this is a sure sign that the discontent is genuine and widespread.


287 posted on 09/12/2009 6:59:33 PM PDT by Round 9
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To: Zakeet

I think it should be possible to estimate the crowd size using the camera that was aimed down the street to the Capital.

Does anyone have time line of when the crowd started down the street in front of that camera and when it finished? From that number and analyzing the number of people in a portion of the frame, we should be able to estimate how many people walked past it.


288 posted on 09/12/2009 7:01:06 PM PDT by speelurker
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To: jennyjenny

My understanding was that the march was to start from Freedom Plaza at 11:30 am. But when I checked the 14th St/E St. Webcame at 10:30am, the swarm of people was already way up Pennsylvania Ave., near the Capitol Building. To me, this was obviously because Freedom Plaza overflowed.

I got to Freedom Plaza about 11:15am. The Plaza was already empty, but Penn Ave. was a mass of humanity. I filed in on the march to the Capitol, thinking I was among the last to arrive. But as I kept looking back every few minutes, there was just a wall of people behind me as far as I could see. I have no idea where all those people behind me came from, nor where all those tens of thousands of people I had seen on the Webcam an hour before had gone to.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G as all I can say. My a$$ if there were not more than 1 million people there. Easily.


289 posted on 09/12/2009 7:02:17 PM PDT by kevao (I am Joe Wilson!)
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To: Zakeet

Just curious. Does anybody know what the largest crowd of people was in the history of the world? I would think this would have a chance if it was 1.5 to 2 million.


290 posted on 09/12/2009 7:06:29 PM PDT by cornfedcowboy
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To: Williams
A Capitol Building cop at the end told me there is no way to know for sure but he estimated 2 to 300,000.

Well, I'd like to see some aerial photo comparisons between today's event and the "Million Man March", and the Obama inauguration, for that matter.

You were there, as I was. Do you really think there were as few as only 300,000? There were easily more people here today than for the Obama inauguration, which I believe was 1.2 million.

291 posted on 09/12/2009 7:07:38 PM PDT by kevao (I am Joe Wilson!)
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To: xeno

Great pictures, thank you! Have been laughing at all the creative - and funny - and right on signs today!

If liberals/leftists/communists had any good sense (as Ann Coulter wrote), they would become conservatives!!!

The people marching today represent tens of millions of Americans who ARE awake to what is going on and who ARE ACTIVE and READY to MAKE REAL CHANGE HAPPEN!

Send the leftists packing in 2010! But keep fighting - don’t wait til then!


292 posted on 09/12/2009 7:08:57 PM PDT by Freedom'sWorthIt (Obama's Deathcare ---- many will suffer and/or die unnecessarily.)
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide

“Still just hundreds.”

And they are all bussed in by gigantic corporations.


293 posted on 09/12/2009 7:08:57 PM PDT by DBrow
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To: kevao

Yeah, we kind of figured they just started marching early because of the size of the crowd at the Plaza had grown too large. We joined in at about the Federal Triangle area around 10:20 and by that time it was obvious the march had been going on for some time. We saw nothing but people in front of us (and behind us) nearly all the way to the Capitol, so they must have started much, much earlier than anticipated.


294 posted on 09/12/2009 7:13:27 PM PDT by jennyjenny
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To: oldbill

I saw a whole row of portajohns, some of which had signs that read “ACORN Field Office” on them!


295 posted on 09/12/2009 7:15:38 PM PDT by NJRighty (Under President B. Hussein 0bama, the stars and stripes be replaced by a hammer and sickle)
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To: jennyjenny

Glad you were there.

Was one of the best days of my life.


296 posted on 09/12/2009 7:19:40 PM PDT by kevao (I am Joe Wilson!)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball
Someone posted this on Facebook, but I don't know the source.

297 posted on 09/12/2009 7:20:21 PM PDT by moonpie57 ("Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." MLK)
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To: ncalburt
a group of teenagers girls who started up a Repub club at their Maryland High School

Maryland is a state that is totally dominated by Dems so those gals deserve tremendous credit for having the courage of their convictions.

298 posted on 09/12/2009 7:25:05 PM PDT by Starboard
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To: moonpie57

That looks like the Promise Keepers event in 1997 or 98.


299 posted on 09/12/2009 7:29:55 PM PDT by donna (Arizona DPS photo radar - just 24% of speeders pay up.)
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To: Zakeet

great post!

Great image


300 posted on 09/12/2009 7:30:59 PM PDT by GeronL (http://libertyfic.proboards.com ............. http://tyrannysentinel.blogspot.com)
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